The Press., 1887-08-18
THE WORST RAILWAY ACCIDENT
rHAr EVER HAPPrNrD rN AMnn1oA

THE WORST RAILWAY ACCIDENT
 THAT EVER HAPPENED IN AMRRIoA The black record of American railway disasters receives a most frightfnl addition In the reports Uf frightfni accident on the Toledo, Peoria and Western road la Illinois last week Wednesday, night. Al I train filed with excursi0nists for the east crashed through burning bridge over the VermilIion river near Chatsworth, and near. | ly 100 were horribly burned to death. Al | latest accounts 98 bodies had been FeCov- cred, and others were thought Co be in the ruins Many times that number were in- Ijured, and some of these will die. The train was composed of sit sleeping cars, six day coaches and tchair .eaEa. and three baggage. 1t was carrying 960 passengers, all excnrsionlsbs, and was bound for Mag ara Falls. The train had been made up all along the line of the Toledo, Peoria and | Western road When 1t drew out of Peoria at o'clock Wednesday evening. 1t was loaded to it's utmost capacity. Two engines were hitched to il, and when it passed For est it was an hour and Q half behind time.
 ChatsWorth, the next station east of For est, is six miles of, and the run there was made in seven minutes so the terrible momentum of those Is coaches and two engines shooting through space at the rate of mile minute can be understood. No lstop was made at Chatsworth, and on the Iheavy train with its living freight sped
 through the darkness of the night. s':3
 Three miles east of Ghatsworth is little slough where the railroad crosses dry run about 10 feet deep and 15 wide. Over this was stretched an ordinary wooden trestle bridge, and as the excuraion train
 came laundering down on it.swhat was the
 horror of thesengineer on the front engine |. kINok k,~s1 0aso
 Right up before his eyes leaped the bright flames and the next instant he was among them. There was no chance to stop. Had there been warning it would have taken
 half mile to stop that on-rushing mass of wood, iron and human lives, and the train
 was within 100 yards of the red -tongued messengers of death before they flashed their fatal signals into the engineers face. But he passed over in safety. The first engine keeping the rails, as 1t went over,
 the bridge fell beneath it, and it could on- ly have been the terrific speed of the train which saved the lives of engineer and fre- man.. But the next engine went down and instantly the deed of death was done. Gar crashed into car. Coaches piled upon one another, and in the twinkling of an eye nearly 100 people found instant death and 50 more were so badly hurt they could not live. As for the wounded, they were ev- erywhere. Only the sleeping coaches es-
 capped, and ss the startled and half dressed passengers came tumbling ont of them they found such 8 scene of death as is rare- ly witnessed and such work to do that it seemed aS if human hands were utterly in- capable. a.z,.,>...-4.
 Down in the ditch lay the second engi- neer McChntock, dead, and Fireman Ap- lplegate badly injured. On top were piled khn khYoo hoc Nora oTnfhow like 8 child's card-house after heshad swept it with his hand. Then came the six day coaches. They were telescoped ss cars never were before, and three of them were lpressed into just space enough for one. EThe second car had mounted of it's trucks and crashed through the car ahead of it, lcrushing the woodwork aside like finder land lay there resting on the tops of the seats while every passenger in the front car was lying dead or dying underneath. Out of that car but four people came alive. On top of the second car lay the third, and it's bottom was smeared with the blood of it's victims. The other three cars were not SO badly crushed, but-they were broken and twisted in every conceivable way and every crushed timber and beam represent I ed & crushed human frame and q broken lbone. Instantly the air was filled with cries of the wounded and the shrieks of the ldying. The groans of men and the screams of women united to make appalling sounds, and above all could be heaEd the agonizing cries of little children, as in some instances they lay pinned alongside their dead pa- rents. ,-- s.,4.;. .5s,-, s.....,, ...,.s .sf, :
 And there was another terrible danger yet to be met The bridge was still burn ing and the wrecked cars. were lying on and around the fercely blazing embers. Everywhere in the wreck were wounded and nnhurt men, women and children whose lives could be saved if they oould be got ten out, but whose death. end death in q tmost horrible form, was certain if the twist ed wood of the broken earei caught fire, and to fight the fire there was not drop of
 water and only some 50 able-bodied men, who still had presence of mind and nerve
 enough to do their dnty. The only light
 was the light of the burning bridge. For
 four hours these men fought like fends,
 and for four hours the victory hung in the
 balance. ":i sa77 t@-J:a -s5&. 4s, . ert,
 Earth was the only weapon with which
 the foe could be fought, but there was nc
 pick or shovel to dig it up, no baskets or
 barTows to carry, 1t. So desperate were
 the men that they dug their fingers down
 into the earth, which a long drouth had
 baked almost as hard as 8 atone, and heap
 ed the precious handfulss upon the ien. croaching flames, and with this earth work built handful by handful they kept back the foe. While this was &going on other brave men crept underneath the wrecked
 cars beneath the fire and the wooden bar
 which held as prisoners so many precious
 lives, and with pieces of board and some. times thelr hands beat back the flames
 when they flashed up alongside some un. fortunate wretch who was pinned down by heavy beam.
 Finally the victory was won, the fire was
 put out after four hours endeavor and as it's last sparks died away the dawn cams upon 8 scene of horror. While the fight
 had been going on men had been dying
 and there were not SO many wounded to
 take out of the wreck as there had been 1 four hours before. The dead were laid ) Ereyerentially alongside each other in the corn.fiel Oyer 30 bodies was the awful
 poll of the dead. ., s.-. ..:.,r ,.-., LEW :sa' F. Chatsworthr was turned into a morgue. n The town hall, the engine house, the de- n pot were all fnll of dead bodies, while every e house in the little village hasita quota of the D wounded. There were nearly. 100 corpsef D living in the extemporized dead houses, and 6 every man and woman was turned into an IF on 10 faup~ huf zo0I0uc u1rTao Over in z